A place created for great ideas, and thoughts to grow.
Here, you'll find tidbits of inspiration, growing buds of hope, ideas about life, health, and happiness. Most of all, by visiting my garden, I hope you will see things you haven't seen before, and connect to raw, real earth, and watch your own 'seeds' grow.

It's a wonder I'm coming out of my hobbit hole. Sometimes
the world is a very big and scary place, and us hobbits like to stay in our
burrow, and eat cheese, and scribble, and draw, and keep away from people,
because it is very peopley out there.
And though I like people very much, they do make me tired.

Hm....

"Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow
until the faucet is turned on--"Louis' Amour.

Wise words. But frightening words.

What happens if you turn on the faucet and nothing, but sand
comes out.

What then?

What if it's a drought in your brain. What if all the words
are dried up, and stuck to inside of my skull, like sticky rice that's been
heated and cooked, and then dehydrated in the fridge.

It takes a bit of courage to turn on a faucet that has been
shut off for a while. Dehydrated rice,
and other derbies are likely to come out. And that's not pretty.

So, this is what I'm doing right now, turning on the faucet,
in hopes that something resembling coherent words will flow, not drip out of
this dry, faucet before it evaporates in the summer heat.

My thoughts are in constant competition with the to do list
in my head. My brain keeps on telling me that it's been so many moons since my
last entry you've all quite forgotten about me. And that I should just keep
putting it off.

But as of
now, I'm telling my brain to chill, and that I AM WRITING!

Helloooooo?

Echo.

It sounds
kind of quiet out there in cyber land. Hmmm. Oh dear.

Then comes the foreboding question. What to write about,
since I've neglected you for so long. That's a very scary thought, actually,
it's probably why I keep on shutting off my writing faucet in the first place.

There are too many things that want to be written down all
at once, so it clogs me writing any words. How can I just pick one thing to
write about, when I want to write about a million things?

It's a
tough decision---So tough that if I do happen to finish writing this post, I'll
feel very proud, because it will mean that I've freed up some 'constipated'
words, and maybe the writing faucet will work more smoothly.

I need some
writer's Ex-Lax to free up the clogg-age
in my brain........Hmmmm what is writer's Ex-Lax? Think, think.. Ah HAH! Maybe it's the
Alphabet. That's all words are, really. That's every book summed up in a few
letters. Okay, ah.... let me get it out of my system.

Okay, now that I've gotten that out of the way, I think
perhaps I can now write. I mean, look at the Alphabet, it's only 26 letters.
Twenty-six! Anything I write has got to be more interesting that reading the
alphabet over and over for an hour. So I guess I can venture forth, and
hopefully not have a diarrhea of words now. That also is a little messy.

Oh dear. I sound kind of gross. But I can't help it. It's
making me feel better, just being free with my thoughts, no matter how garbled.

Now, back on track, (hopefully)

Summer. It's been a hot one. And it's gone by FAST! Super,
triple fast, in my opinion. Looking back over the past few months, I think I'm
going to call this summer,

The Summer I was baptized in a thousand sunsets.

How does one be baptized by sunsets?

Well, I'll tell you. You swim out doors under the open sky,
until the sun sets, and then you are bathed in silken purple robes, silvery
Mercury sheets, Crimson reds, and vibrant oranges, rich deep yellows, and
crystal clear blues, that darken, and glisten with contrast as the sun goes
down.

My soul has been refreshed, renewed, and bathed in every
color on the color wheel, and baptized by the descending sun, and moon-lit
sky.

Over the course of thirteen weeks, I've tried to make time to swim nearly every day, (Of course missed some days) with my sister, Bessie Skeem, to strengthen my injured arm, and help my mom with her sciatica hip pain. Sometimes it was a struggle to make time. Sometimes I'd end up swimming in the evenings just as the sun went down and the moon came up, and sometimes I'd end up swimming in the freezing cold, at six or seven in the morning

My
swimming obsession started out as a passing thought, that it might help me
rehabilitate, and strengthen my flabby, stiff, painful arm, and help my mom who
has been suffering from painful sciatica in her hips. My sister and I were
worried my mom might need an operation, because she was getting so she could
hardly walk. So we decided to motivate each other and try to swim every day.

We have a
local reservoir, that's really quite beautiful. That was our chosen place of
swimming. But the water is cold, murky gray/green brown. And the bottom of the
reservoir is muddy and squishy, and rather gross. You never know what you might
step on. But we all thought that, despite its flaws, we liked the thought of
swimming there, out under the sky, rather than swimming in a crowded swimming pool that smells like chlorine.

At first, I
was terrified to swim. Honestly. I hadn't been swimming since my arm accident.
I didn't know if I could swim, and if I would be able to swim out into the
deep, far out to the buoys. Part of me didn't want to try. My mom was also
afraid. She has this dreaded fear of
the water ever since she was young. She never learned to swim. And she
protested the idea of swimming for so many reasons.

We couldn't
get her to come with us, so my sister and I braved the water. And the first
couple of times I just swam close to shore, and it gave me my arm a huge
workout. It made my arm very sore. And because my arm was so sore, and popped
and clunked, because of the scar tissue, I really didn't dare go out where I
couldn't touch.

I didn't
have faith that I'd stay afloat.

But
gradually, after watching my sister swim far out away from me. I was determined
to face my fears. I got braver. I
remember feeling very, very proud when I swam out to the buoys. It felt like a
huge victory for me, because I had once thought I might never swim, like I had
before. But I did!!! And once I was able to cross that barrier in my mind, I
felt free. And I kept on swimming.

After
swimming and enjoying it so much. My sister and I were eventually able to
smooth talk my mom into coming and trying out the water. Luckily I read up on the health benefits of
swimming in open, cold water, and this helped me to convince her.

At first my
mom's balance wasn't so good. We made sure to put a life jacket on her, so
she'd feel safe. We slowly walked out into the water, and she held tightly onto
my hand, like death-grip tight.

I helped
her walk. At first, she was very uncomfortable, and made faces. The water was
cold, and it made her squeal.

Then
slowly, gradually as she grew accustomed to the water, and she began to smile,
and relax, just a little. She loved how beautiful it was, and how the cold
water took, took the pain out of her joints, and gave her more mobility.

Believe it
or note, but my mom enjoyed that one trip to the water so much, that that one
plunge into the cold water was all she needed to get motivated. Because after
that, she wanted to go swimming nearly every day, since June.

Since then.
We've been swimming nearly 13 weeks, we hardly missing a day. Rain, wind, cold or
shine, early morning, late at evenings, sun set, sun rise. We've seen that
reservoir in every weather condition, except snow. We've swam under a full moon
reflected on the glistening surface of the water, and pink, and orange dream
bar clouds above us, and reflected in the water around us.

In the peak
heat of the summer, when the water was starting to get warm, we decided to try
out the water very early in the morning, to see if the water would be cooler.

We went
just as the sun was rising. Not a soul was around. The beach was deserted.
Calm. Clear, as glass, like a mirror. The water was very cold. But it was
refreshing. Once I took the initial plunge, my body got used to it.

The cool
water against my chin felt comforting. Being at eye level with the water, was
like swimming in a mirror, and the only ripples that I could see were the
ripples I made as I swam. That morning, my sister and I swam well out past the
buoys because there were no boats around. It felt wonderful to swim past the
boundaries, and explore other parts of the lake that we had not dared to swim
in when there boats around. I felt like
Columbus, discovering a new land, except, in this case, I was discovering new
water for myself.

That was
one of the first morning swims of many.

One
morning, around six or seven. I remember waking up, with my mom standing above
my bed. Fully garbed in her swim suit.

"Ready
to go swimming?" She asked.

I moaned,
and rolled over in bed, and then, she said, half joking, half serious.
"Hmm. Maybe you should sleep in your swim suit."

We've been swimming in frigid storms. When no other soul
dared touch their toes to the water because it's so cold. We've swam when the wind was terrible, when
the waves rolled over us, and punched us in the face, slapped our ears, and
forced its way into our mouth nose, and lungs. We've swam when the rain pelted
our eyes, and all we could do was put one arm in front of the other and swim,
and keep our head above the water.

We've been
swimming so late in the day, that we've watched the moon rise over the
mountains, and reflect on the water.

We've swam
when the water level was so low you could walk out to the buoys and back. When
yucky pussy looking moss that looks like it's growing warts and teeth are
floating over the water.

I've swam
so much, that I feel like I own the reservoir. Because I know it. I know that there's a a res cat, that lives off of the junk food discarded by picnickers. I know where
it's shallow, and deep. I know where the fish like to jump. I know that for the
most part, adults do not swim. Only children.

Adults just
watch. Adults are afraid of the cold. And of being seen in their swim suit. I've seen a lot of teenagers, too, just sit on a bench with side by side, with cell phone in hand, staring at a screen.

Children
still have fun. They swim.

And the grown ups get more grown up by the second, when they
could be swimming, and growing younger.

I've swam
as a white pelican watched me watch it as it floated on by. I've learned that
the reservoir is not as nearly as popular as I once thought. I've also learned
that it is mostly only occupied on the weekends, or holidays. I've nearly been run over by a large sail boat, with beautiful orange
sails, that had caught the wind, and came barreling at me past the buoys at a
frightening speed.

It was funny, just the other day, I went swimming, and a big boat came by, and swamped me with waves. A little girl pointed at me from the boat, and said. "Look, mamma, that person is drowned."

I looked drowned? Seriously? I thought that was very funny. It made me chuckle to myself for the rest of the evening. I may have looked like my head was just above the water, but I was very far from being drowned.

Once, while
on the beach, I watched a large party of people push a homemade boat-thingy
into the water, (it looked quite interesting) it had these cylinders on the
bottom, that went in circles to power it. But sadly it just floundered in the
water, and took 15 minutes to just do a half circle. I felt bad for the guy who
built it. I couldn't help but identify with the feeling of embarrassment he
must have felt after putting so much work into his project, and only to have it
flounder in the water, while all his family stood around, with phones, and
cameras raised, to record his inventions epic fail.

I've found many treasures at the bottom of the reservoir.
I've someone's sunglasses. A dog toy. Several pop cans. Large chunks of cement.
A lacy shirt. And several other things, that slipped from my hands before I
could pull them out of the water. I've saved several tubes and rafts that the wind
grabbed and zipped across the water, and returned them to their owner.

The one
object that really disturbed me that we found was one my sister stubbed her toe
on by the dock. It was when the water was very low. My sister started shouting
out me that she thought she stubbed her toe on a car.

A car? I
thought. How? What?

I went over to where she had injured her toe, and she had me
step on top of the object in question.

It did feel
weird. It had several long round pip-things that protruded up, like the exhaust
pipe on the end of a tractor. The whole object felt like big hunk of cement,
that was, in my opinion very dangerous to swimmers. Especially if someone fell
onto it.

Upon
further inspection, my sister felt a long cable running from the object, that
ran clear over to the dock.

We concluded that it must be the dock's anchor.

I think
that the water level got so low, that we found it. I'm hoping that now that the
water level is higher, that it won't be any danger to anybody. But I'm still
wondering, who to ask about this odd dangerous object.

We swim
nearly two hours every time we go. At first I got very tired, my hips, my
knees, my arms, my ankles---EVERYTHING hurt!

Gradually I
built up muscles, and got more flexible.
But, honestly, I still get sore, so after 13 weeks and still being sore,
it's just something that I live with, because I enjoy the benefits than I'm
afraid of the pain.

I have learned never to eat banana shake
while swimming, because it gives you acid baby burps.

If I do eat
before I swim, its something very easily digested. The water is so cold
sometimes, I get really hungry when I get out of the water. And really sleepy.
Which is good when we swim at the end of the day, because it relaxes my mind,
and body, and puts me in a nice Zen sort of state. Swimming helps me not to
think, but to be.

And that in itself puts me in a poet sort of state.

My mom is
gradually reducing her fear of the water. Her balance is much better. She
doesn't feel as self conscious in her swim suit, like she first did. She's
braver. She doesn't need me to hold her hand anymore, while water walking. She
uses her life-jacket, and is able to go out farther by herself. I have high
hopes of teaching her some basic swimming skills, when she's ready.

Her hips
still give her pain. But I believe that with time, and perseverance, her hips
will heal. She has grown to love the water. It helps her not feel depressed,
and to feel more happy. She's able to stand more straight than she used to.
She's building muscle, and courage. The water is the only place that takes
gravity off her hips, enough so she can exercise, and the cold water takes away
the pain.

She
constantly amazes me. Some days, when I'm not feeling like swimming, she'll ask,
"So are we going swimming?

Days when I
just don't want to dive into the water, she wakes in before me or my sister,
and splashes in.

At the
beginning, when I was trying to get my mom to get excited about swimming, I
told her. Maybe all you need is to bathe in the river, like in the scripture
story. Maybe it's that simple.

Maybe it
is.

All I know
is, now my mom has faith that is helping her.

As for
myself. Even if it didn't have any physical benefits, I'd still swim. It makes
my soul very happy, and gives me a huge endorphin high, especially after
swimming in really cold water.

I have more
endurance, and strength. It didn't happen in a day, or weeks. But months. Now
I'm able to swam from the one end of the reservoir to the other several times.
The other day, I was proud to say that I did six laps across from one end to of
the reservoir the other.

Did I get
sore? Yes. But it was worth it.
I'm a happier person for swimming. My sister and I have concluded that we'd
rather make time in our busy day to swim, because it makes our days more worth
living.

My arm is
stronger because I swim. Yes, it still pains me. But I'm getting stronger. It's
the one exercise I can do that makes me feel like I am strengthening my arm,
and body, with light resistance.

I have been
baptized by a thousand sunsets. Washed by the light of the moon. Bathed in
sunlight, and moonbeams, rainbows, and strengthened by waves, and stormy water.

I feel
reborn in

the womb of the water. I feel stronger mentally, and physically.

I think
Aerial had it wrong.

Who
wouldn't want to be a mermaid?

Water is
one place you can fly, and be weightless.

I may never
walk on the moon, but I have swam with it, weightless, and immortal for a
moment.

I may never
walk on water.

But I have
stepped out into it.

And swam
through the storms, and waves.

Who knows?

That
initial cold, bone chilling splash that you dread, may be the one thing that
will take your pain away, and strengthen your arms.

Waves.
Cold. Water. Fear of the unknown. The sharks, the derbies at the bottom.
Feeling venerable. Wearing a swim suit.

These are
the things that hold us back.

The unknown
scary things.

The squishy
mud.

The germs.

What if I
can't float?

What if I can't swim?

What If I
sink?

What if I
drown?

What if?

What if you
were brave?

What if you
decided to go beyond just sticking your toes in the water, and take the plunge,
despite everything inside of you that says that it's too cold, that it wont
work.

What if you
had faith?

What if you
actually enjoyed it? What if you discovered that walking into your fears,
stepping out of the boat, into the 'water' whatever your water is may, is the
first and best thing you can do to strengthen not only your body, but your
spirit.

Once the shock
of the cold wears off, I promise you, you will begin to see the beauty your
fears have been keeping you from.

The oceans.
The Lakes. The pools. The reservoirs. The rivers.

It will
unfold like rippling water, reflecting the sky, and you will be amazed at the
beautiful thing you see, once you stepped away from the shore, and looked out
beyond the horizon.

The moment
you take the plunge, will be free, and made strong. It will be the season you will be baptized by the open sky, and
renewed by things that cannot be bought, or earned.

But
experienced.

Note all photo credits in this particular blog post were taken by my mom, Jeanette Skeem of the reservoir.

Translate this blog

Be the first to get a copy of my New Audio book.

"Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures."--- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Find my art on ETSY

Followers

"An imperfect something is better than a perfect nothing. Don't wait for that perfect day, for that perfect work of art you will someday create. Dare to create knowing that you are imperfect, and that what you do will probably be imperfect too. Perfection isn't the aim. Creating something that didn't exist before is. We live in an age where we worship perfection, and shun, real organic thought. We Photoshop the heck out of reality, so nothing we see is real. We are so used to seeing this alternate reality---this unattainable perfection in every degree of life, that we are repulsed by our own "real" selves, and are inability to achieve perfection.

Don't let this way of thinking destroy the good you can do. Don't let it belittle the wonderful person you are. Don't let these false images destroy your own uniqueness. Dare to try, dare to believe in your dreams, dare to be real, dare to create. Be brave. Say this to yourself when you feel inadequate, imperfect, and human. What you have to offer is real. That is what matters."---Stephanie Skeem

What every writer should memorize.

"Genius is only the power of making continuous efforts. The line between failure and success is so fine that we scarcely know when we pass it...how many a man has thrown up his hands at a time when a little effort, a little more patience, would have achieved success? As the tide goes out, so it comes in...a little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn into success. There is no failure except from within, no really insurmountable barrier save our own inherent weakness of hope."---Elbert Hubard.

On Writing

"Remember if you write, write, write, you can never be wrong."---Stephanie Skeem

Featured Posts

Video Of Day

About Me

I'm
a free spirit who loves life, good food, warm souls, long walks, and
being authentically creative. I view life a rare gift that should be
cherished, remembered and experienced. You never know what tomorrow will
bring, so why not devote our lives to the small beautiful things that
make our souls sing? That's the main reason why I believe photography,
painting, writing, music, and art in all its forms is so necessary.
Without them, life would be soulless.

I'm a Writer, landscaper, explorer, singer, musician, friend, doctor,
athlete, cowgirl, mosquito masher, treasure finder, councilor,
accidental comedian, dreamer, cheese cake tester, janitor, author,
repair woman, artist, website builder, psychologist, theologian, sales
person, sister, aunt, daughter, grandchild, entertainer, warrior, change
agent, dancer, therapist, teacher.
I'm a author who enjoys spinning tales and making heroes out of ordinary
men and woman. I'm a author/artist/Adventurer in all new and good
things. I've got many dreams/goals aspirations.
I love playing Frisbee, a good laugh, smashing moths, righting the
injustices of the world, finding new ways to make ordinary things not so
ordinary. I love hoop dancing. If you don't know what that is, ask me
and I'll be glad to tell you.
I love thunderstorms, you know, the kind when the power goes out and you
have to go get the candles.

I take a lot of pictures---just ask my family. Wherever I go, I
have my camera. I think it's fascinating to be able to see something
beautiful, to capture it for one small moment before it vanishes, like a
firefly, so you can show others what you saw. It's like magic. You can
take something very ordinary and bring it into focus----and make it
extraordinary. That's what creatives do. We are alchemist of art, and
bring into focus that which others may not see.
I like to do many different things so long as it's interesting, and
I'm learning something new. I know my spirit would dry up and blow away
if I couldn't be creating something.

I'm along with being an author, I blog a lot, and write young adult books, and illustrate
them. I love molding words into pictures, and feelings. It's a wonderful
outlet for me to think on paper. I also oil paint, draw, and experiment
with a lot of different mediums. I like to use unusual canvases as to
paint on---like old rusty metal, reclaimed wood, and anything else that
looks like it would make good art.

I'm interested in health, art, improving myself, learning new things, living abundantly, meeting new people, trying new flavors, movies, books, politics, mental health, cooking, new ideas, connecting, living authentically, psychology, and everything in between, so long as it's interesting. As a member of the guild of artists, lets help each other out,
please comment, and or follow me, and I'll try to pay it forward.
Thank you!